SINGER ED SHEERAN has settled a $20 million plagiarism lawsuit with X Factor winner Matt Cardle.
The British superstar was accused of “note for note” copying of Cardle’s track Amazing on his hit song Photograph.
Songwriters Thomas Leonard and Martin Harrington had accused Sheeran of “unabashedly taking credit” for their work.
They accused Sheeran and his co-writer – Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid – of copying 36 of 39 notes in the chorus of the song.
A complaint lodged in the US last year said:
“This copying is, in many instances, verbatim, note-for-note copying, makes up nearly one half of Photograph, and raises this case to the unusual level of strikingly similar copying.”
A US judge yesterday signed an order saying an agreement had been reached between the parties, but did not say for how much.
It is not the first time Sheeran has had plagiarism allegations thrown at him. He is being sued over similarities between his song Thinking Out Loud and the Marvin Gaye classic Let’s Get It On and just last month was forced to credit the writers of TLC song No Scrubs on his hit Shape Of You.
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